space_junkfandomcom-20200215-history
Episode20
It's a shambles! It was bound to happen sooner or later and it did. Our well-intentioned but poorly-planned delve into the Necrite hive inevitably hit a mucous plug that could not be penetrated. Things quickly went downhill when we tried to push through the final plug before the Salvage chamber. The tunnel was narrow and rapidly filled with toxic scout-gas (PR 30) which made hitting the super-defendy Necrites even harder. Kiwi bravely charged in but after his armor was destroyed he changed his tune to one of 'retreat!' Kiwi calling for a retreat was an unsettling turn of events and very uncharacteristic. We pulled back through the previous mucous plug and pondered what to do. We debated whether we should pull out of the hive entirely or only pause for a moment and then take another stab. After Pete repaired Kiwi's armor (so he could have Enviroveil protection again) we ultimately decided not to pull out since it would likely be even harder to penetrate the hive later after we gave them more time to fortify defences and spawn even more reinforcements. First, we decided to try communicating again after mixed results in the previous battle. Oz worked out a way to use Illusion to communicate using what we'd learned of the Necrites speech patterns (verbal and non-verbal) that actually worked! The Necrites responded with their own holo-recorder and the negotiating began. Our position was that we just wanted the Core and then we'd leave. Their position was that they were not scared of us and not going to give up the Core. After a bit of haggling we ultimately abandoned the attempt, though, since it became obvious that the Necrites were not going to give up the Core willingly (it freaked them out when we even suggested it). We would find out why later. While, Oz was negotiating with the Necrites, Kiwi came up with a plan to disguise us as Necrites using Morph magic. We had considered disguising ourselves in previous sessions but discarded the idea due to the complexity of the Necrite's identification patterns. However, after getting to know them much better during the last few encounters we now knew that if we pretended to be freshly hatched then we could get away with our lack of connectivity to the hive-mind and other 'alien' indicators. After Oz cast an illusion of the party leaving the area, we pulled back and pretended to be freshly hatched Workers. A Scout came along and helpfully lead us back through the tunnels to a secret tunnel we'd missed. Following this tunnel allowed us to bypass that nasty plug and head straight past the salvage chamber (who needs loot) and the Regeneration chamber. We then scuttled deep down into the hive and arrived at the Queen's chamber. In the Queen's chamber we found the Queen surrounded by Necrite Workers, Warriors, and a new kind of Necrite (not sure I remember that right). Sensors showed us that the Core was inside the Queen. No wonder they didn't want to give it up! We called it a night there but it looks like this will be our toughest fight yet. The Core is an invaluable prize but it sure isn't going to be easy getting it. 1 Combat 11 Genaric Karlid 11 Mystic . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk